Jesus, Republicans

I read with interest the June 4 letter labeling Jesus as a liberal. Label Jesus as you like, but he was pro-life, pro-marriage (man and woman) and pro-family. The letter writer should also check his sources before saying Republicans are against feeding the hungry and curing the sick.

I guess the latter is a reference to being against embryonic stem-cell research, which so far has proved fruitless.

Michael Bartkoski

Leawood

Curious Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s conservative five justices, the backers of the democracy-killing Citizens United “buy elections because corporations are people” now seem ready to claim that we cannot force people to buy health insurance. Isn’t that what conservatives fussed about when Medicare became the law of the land?

We already are forced to pay for health insurance and have been willingly buying it for decades. If the “mandate” is somehow considered unconstitutional by these conservatives then Massachusetts might have to reverse its mandate as well.

Let Justice Antonin Scalia eat his broccoli. It might cause his blinders to fall off.

Martin Kaynan

Olathe

Time to change course

To the president and the Congress of the United States, I offer the following quote from Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Peggy Schmiedeler

Overland Park

Multiplying mistakes

Let’s see, an $8 million cash subsidy from the city would go to the Cordish Group to build a high-rise luxury apartment building downtown if the project is approved by the Kansas City Council (6-2, A1, “A housing boost for downtown.”) Yes, I know this follows an ill-advised agreement with Cordish for the Power & Light District, which has been a fiscal failure.

This deal would take place while the city is hitting up 96-year-old great-grandmas $4,000 to repair their sidewalks broken up by the trees planted by an incompetent City Hall (6-21, A1, “Bad sidewalk? You get the bill”)?

Are we nuts?

Brent Hoad

Kansas City

Gasoline price jump

Gol-lee, I guess I did just fall off the turnip truck. Almost every night the TV news anchors tell us of falling oil prices and low gasoline prices at the pump.

So, I hope someone can ’splain to me why prices at my local gasoline station jumped from $3.25 to $3.39 last week. I guess I’m just not smart enough to figure it out for myself.

Nancy Suske

Lee’s Summit

Teens, immigrants, jobs

The June 7 story, “Tough job market leaves teens in limbo,” about teens “struggling to survive” a historically tough job market fails to mention (no accident) one undeniable fact — competition from legal and illegal immigrants for menial jobs in America. Go to any fast-food restaurant in Kansas City and you will find the vast majority of workers to be foreign-born with poor if any English skills.

Funny, these immigrants have little difficulty securing employment in a very tough job market. If you look a little deeper you will be surprised to find many good-paying jobs being held by immigrants, and not just in the service industry.

Another reason to increase our immigration numbers and grant amnesty to those who work the jobs our unemployed teens won’t.

Michael Kalny

Shawnee

In pursuit of justice

My son, Richard Brown, and four other defendants were convicted in the 1988 deaths of six firefighters. I have always proclaimed my son’s innocence.

Now the Department of Justice has released a report naming “other people” involved in this crime. Why are they not being indicted?

How can those six firefighters rest in peace while the guilty are still out there roaming our streets? I ask that we all band together and force the government to indict those “other people” so the innocent may come home and those six firefighters may rest in peace.

Nadine Smith

Independence

McCaskill must go

Sen. Claire McCaskill is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the Obama administration. She has voted for legislation President Obama wants even though the people of Missouri wanted her to vote differently.

Now she remains silent on the Fast and Furious scandal in which a federal officer was murdered. She clearly does not have the backs of those who serve in law enforcement.

We all know that if this were President George W. Bush or any other Republican president, she would demand not only a special prosecutor but an impeachment hearing.

McCaskill is not representing the people of Missouri at all.

We must remember this election year that just because McCaskill says it doesn’t mean it is true. Republican or Democrat, we need someone to represent us, not the administration.

McCaskill must be held accountable for her actions and inactions.

Ward Dickmann

Raytown

Changing focus, ire

Being a longtime, loyal reader of The Kansas City Star, I remember a time when reading a Lewis Diuguid column could make my blood pressure skyrocket. Every one, it seemed, focused on racial discrimination.

Lewis, I thought, could make a case for the inequity of a piano having more white keys than black. Then something wonderful happened.

Maybe Lewis got older and wiser. I don’t know.

But, at last, articles came forth about his new neighborhood, his old van and Kodachrome film. No more constant race-related subjects.

Life was good. But in the vein of being careful what you wish for, Lewis’ place was taken over by Yael T. Abouhalkah.

I too have gotten older and perhaps wiser.

I won’t let Yael’s mean-spirited, racially charged opinions compromise my health. I just thank The Kansas City Star and Yael for giving me new material to line the bottom of the bird cage.

Ed Coleman

Kansas City

Rich guy Romney

What is the difference between me and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney? I know within a million dollars how much money I have.

I don’t think he is one of us.

Joan Harrison

Weatherby Lake

Keep North KC Hospital

As North Kansas City prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, it’s funny that city officials are thinking about selling one of its crown jewels, North Kansas City Hospital (6-20, A11, “NKC weighs selling its hospital”).

What’s next? Selling the police department?

The mayor and the council owe it to the residents of North Kansas City, along with the patients and staff of North Kansas City Hospital, to do something they haven’t done so far.

Let them know what is going on every step of the way. North Kansas City Hospital, and all it stands for in the community, is too important for them not to.

Steven Thomas

Kansas City

Obama’s ruinous road

President Barack Obama never ceases to amaze me.

He complains of the financial mess the Bush administration left him but conveniently forgets that the last two years of the Bush administration the House and Senate were controlled by the Democrats.

Then Obama adds trillions of dollars of unsustainable debt to the fiscal mess. It reminds me of when Vladimir Lenin (architect of the communist revolution in Russia) said control of a government could be accomplished through destroying the nation’s currency by taxation and inflation. Obama’s solution is very similar: tax the rich and expand government.

Sounds like the typical socialist/Marxist theme. Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

But we should not be surprised at Obama’s tactics. He was raised in a socialist/Marxist environment.

His church pastor was an avid America hater. Obama associated with a domestic terrorist. During his presidency, many of his appointees have socialist/Marxist leanings.

So, we should not be surprised that Obama is leading our nation down the road to a bankrupt socialist welfare state.

Bud Frye

Olathe

Mute commercials

OK, that’s it. It intruded into my peaceful morning again.

Commercials have gotten worse and worse.

I will not mention the sponsor, but when a family of four or five sitting around the breakfast table screams to each other instead of talking to each other, my remote goes on mute.

I will not patronize this sponsor nor will I encourage anyone I know to do so.

Kay Huff

Overland Park